


Calm after the storm

by MossyFlossy



Category: The Invisible Library - Genevieve Cogman
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-14 23:57:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18487078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MossyFlossy/pseuds/MossyFlossy
Summary: Set the day after the Mortal Word, before they travel back to London and Vale's world, Irene and Kai wait for Vale to finish speaking with the inspector and take time to take in one of the sights of Paris.





	Calm after the storm

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote the after I read about the fire. It was weird to be sad about a building, but then again I get sad very easily.

In the ice cold shadows cast by the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Irene and Kai sipped on cups of strong coffee, their fingers intertwined on the wrought iron table in between of them, and neither of them spoke. They were tired and sore, and Irene probably shouldn’t have been speaking anyway, it was better to rest her throat by not speaking at all. There was a pad of paper and a pen at her elbow in case she did have anything to say so that she could do so without causing more damage.

 

They were bundled up in hats, coats and scarves, gloved fingers that weren’t holding the other were wrapped around the coffee cups to stay warm, the café had been too busy to sit indoors and both had been craving caffeine so they were left to sit outside in the drifts of snow that were in small hillocks around the table and chair legs.

 

Irene was sure that she looked exhausted, and Kai didn’t look much better. He was bruised and whilst the cut on his forehead had been cleaned up and the cold weather had reduced the swelling, it still looked painful to touch. He had circles under his eyes, and she supposed that she probably did too. Neither of them had got much sleep. A few hours of tossing and turning before the other woke the other up with a night terror, before they fell asleep again and rinsed and repeated. They probably should have slept in separate rooms to stop this, but Kai was unwilling to let Irene out of his sight and when they got back to the hotel all Irene had wanted to do was curl up and cry on his shoulder, croaking out apologies for what had happened, with his uncle and everything. He’d been hurt because of her words, emotionally and physically. She dragged her eyes away from the gash on his forehead and to their fingers again.

 

Kai had been obviously ignoring the feeling of her eyes on him in favour of watching the people coming and going into and out of the Cathedral. He smiled when Irene squeezed his fingers and brought his coffee cup to his lips. Black and bitter and strong, the opposite of Irene’s own cup which, in his opinion, had far too much milk and sugar in for it to even taste like coffee. She was still looking at their hands.

 

“Are you alright?” He asked, Irene nearly spilt her coffee when she jumped out of her skin. She took a deep breath and gave a small, sharp nod of her head. He did not believe that for a second. “Finished with your coffee yet?” She shook her head. He sighed. Wouldn’t it be nice to know sign language? Or at least that finger-spelling thing that Irene had been doing earlier when talking to Bradamant, who was then telling Coppelia what she had been saying. At least Vale seemed as perplexed as he had done until it had been explained to them that Irene was simply spelling out the words when her throat started to burn and she didn’t want to start coughing up blood again, according to Vale, it had been horrifying to see her choking, blood dripping down her chin.

 

Kai had wanted to be awake and helping her at that moment, but a small part of him was glad that falling masonry had knocked him clean out, he’d already watched her be shot and had barely managed to keep himself from murdering Hu then, he didn’t think that he would have been able to stop himself from losing all control of emotions if he had seen her coughing up her blood, spent on the ice and barely able to stand, even with support.

 

“Finish it, we can wait for Vale in the Cathedral, it’ll be warmer in there.” She nodded and slowly exhaled. She looked so pale, Kai thought, like she was sick. And it wasn’t just the cold. There wasn’t much of a flush in her cheeks from wind burns. She was just pale and bruised. Hunched shoulders and clouded eyes, she looked like she could do with sleeping for a week. He fully intended on making sure that she went straight to bed once they returned home. Not that he lived with her anymore. Though the embassy business did mean that he could live with her without it being too suspect.

 

_What time is it?_ Irene wrote and turned the paper round for Kai to read it. Her handwriting was the opposite of Vale’s, all neat cursive that was usually perfectly legible, even with her hands in heavy bandages it was still neat and readable. His own handwriting went the other way to Vale’s, overly ornate to the point where it grew hard to read again. He checked his watch.

 

“A little after ten.” He said. “Vale shouldn’t be much longer. I hope.” Vale was meeting with inspector Maillon to just finish up a few aspects of the case, he, Kai and Irene would be travelling out of the city before heading home. Kai reasoned that Paris had already gone through enough, another dragon would not help the return to calm and normalcy. Irene left the bitter dregs of her coffee in her cup whilst Kai finished his cup entirely before stealing a piece of her paper to leave a note for Vale with the waitress, letting him know that they would be in the Cathedral, then he offered Irene his arm and they headed inside.

 

The sudden hush of being inside the Cathedral struck both of them. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, it reminded them of the silence of a library, people were quiet because the wanted to be, not because they were meant to be, not that anyone wanted to be the one to break the silence. There were still the sounds of humanity, but on a smaller scale, breathing, footsteps, someone sneezing because of dust, people talking in quiet voices.

 

Irene sat down on one of the wooden pews whilst Kai wondered off to look at something. She would have gone with him too, but she didn’t think that she would have the energy to do so, and they still needed to get home. Though, she supposed, she could always go through the Library and get some rest before returning home. She didn’t want to leave Kai though. At least Vale would be travelling back with them and would hopefully stop her falling if she did fall asleep. She wasn’t sure if it would hurt if she fell, she wasn’t even sure if there was anything for her to hit, but she didn’t want to find out.

 

“Beautiful, aren’t they?” A woman said, making Kai turn around, he gave her a polite smile. He’d been admiring the stain glass windows behind the alter, but he had heard her coming, he’d thought it was Irene for a second when he had heard the rustling of a skirt, but Irene’s steps were lighter.

 

“They are. It’s hard to imagine how old they are. How long they have been here for.” He said, glancing back up to the glass. The light that came through cast a rainbow pattern on the floor and the skin of everyone who passed through it.

 

“And hopefully they will be here for a long time to come.” She said, she gave him a smile and fluttered her eyelashes. “I’m Amelie.”

 

“Kai.” He said, shaking her hand. “What brings you here?” He looked away to the stone carvings that made up the walls, it was astounding to see them, all hand carved, each inch a work of art and painstaking craftsmanship. Humans truly were amazing sometimes.

 

“I am a historian. You?”

 

“Visiting. My…” He wasn’t entirely sure what to call Irene, girlfriend wasn’t right, it was too modern, and he didn’t particularly like the phrase anyway, too childish. “Paramour wanted to get out of the cold whilst we waited for a friend of ours. And I wasn’t about to say no to chance to admire the architecture.” That worked, provided that Irene didn’t mind being called his love, not that he had told her that he loved her. He was fairly certain that he did love her, he just didn’t want to tell her, just yet. It was too early, and he didn’t want to scare her off, she was too special for that.

 

“That’s nice.” She deflated. “Have a nice day.” She said before walking off again. Kai turned back to the windows, slowly walking past them so that he could admire all of them. He made his way around, and then back to Irene.

 

“How are you?” He asked.

 

_Tired._ She scribbled. And then, _it is beautiful here, isn’t it?_

 

“It really is.” He smiled and sat next to her, slipping his arm around her shoulders and lightly kissing her cheek, the most physical affection that they could get away with displaying. And the most he actually felt comfortable within a public place. He wasn’t the one for overly amorous displays of affection in public, he was much more private with that kind of thing, and he imagined that Irene was too. “Too tired to the upper levels for a look round?” She twisted round to look back and upward. She shook her head and put the pen and paper away, taking the arm that he offered her and smiling slightly, he smiled back.

 

Vale found them, Irene sat on a bench whilst Kai was stood looking up at a window, both had heard him coming.

 

“There you are.” He said. “Admiring the architecture?”

 

“That I am.” Kai said. “Though I think Irene is just trying to not fall asleep again.”

 

_We probably should have stayed outside. It is far too cold to fall asleep out there._ The men had to wait for Irene to write out her response before she held the paper up for them to read from.

 

“Probably.” Kai said with a shrug. “But you would have caught a cold. And I think, with your throat being bad, that could have had quite a nasty effect on you.”

 

“Agreed.” Vale said. Irene huffed.

 

_I am fine._ She wrote, Kai and Vale shared a look, neither wanting to voice how much they disagreed with her.

 

“Then speak.” Vale finally said. “Clearly and without coughing.” She glared at him.

 

“I am fine.” She croaked. It burnt and she took a deep breath, that just made it hurt even more. She swallowed, conscious of the fact that she was gripping her pen tight enough to make her knuckles visible. She coughed and Kai winced, his hand was warm on her back, rubbing in circles until she stopped, there were tears burning in her eyes.

 

“Point proven.” Vale said, sitting down too, stretching his long legs out in front of him. “Will you be alright to travel?” She nodded; he didn’t look convinced.

 

“It should be fine.” Kai said. “Just… try and stay awake. I can catch you if you were to fall, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

 

“I’ll keep hold of her.” Vale said and Kai nodded.

 

_I am not a child._ Irene wrote, showing it to them with a fierce glare in her eyes.

 

“No. You aren’t.” Kai touched her shoulder. “But you are tired, and you are injured. Let us look after you, at least until you are home and safe there, alright? Just a few more hours and then you can be as independent as your heart desires.” Had she been a child, Irene would probably have pouted at that. But instead, she just nodded. She did not like feeling so helpless, so useless. Her weapon, her defence had been robbed of her. She didn’t even know how permeant the damage was. She could never recover fully again. That was a possibility that she would have to face. That she had damaged herself permanently and it would always hurt to talk, and she’d never be able to do much more than whisper.

 

She shook herself and pushed the thought out of her head. _Shall we leave then?_ She wrote.

 

“Let’s.” Kai offered her his hand. “I want to go home.”

**Author's Note:**

> My fic Merrion square is gone until I can decide whether or not to rewrite it or scrap it, this may take a few weeks so that series is on hold until I can stop hating that fic, or write a better version of it.


End file.
